driveshttp://www.maclife.com/taxonomy/term/6048/all
enMy Book Thunderbolt Duo & G-RAID with Thunderbolt Reviewhttp://www.maclife.com/article/reviews/my_book_thunderbolt_duo_graid_thunderbolt_review
<!--paging_filter--><h3>Two drives are always better than one</h3><p>For those of us who can’t afford pricey solid-state drives, but still need a speedy solution for storing data and transferring large files, RAIDs can fill the void--and provide much more storage capacity, dollar for dollar. When configured as a RAID 0, two drives working as one can offer impeccable performance for media, while a RAID 1 can offer a reliable backup solution as one hard drive mirrors the other. Now, hard drive manufacturers are offering Thunderbolt-compatible RAIDs to help bridge the gap between affordable storage solutions and Apple’s new high-speed technology, and both Western Digital and G-Technology have entered the market with their own Thunderbolt RAID offerings.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img src="/files/u307916/2012/07/reviews/wdfmbthunderbolt.jpg" width="333" height="480" /></p><p>Western Digital’s 6TB My Book Thunderbolt Duo (also available in 4TB) comes with two 3TB WD Caviar Green drives, and while WD refuses to give an exact spindle speed, these drives tend to spin anywhere between 5,400 and 5,900 rpm on average. The Caviar Green drives are also designed to use less energy, and they stay relatively quiet. In our QuickBench test, the My Book performed an average read and write speed of 162MB/s and 140MB/s, respectively, while in RAID 0, and a read and write speed of 87MB/s and 82MB/s in RAID 1. The My Book proved its worth with speedy transfer rates, as it took only 14 seconds to transfer 4GB of video in a RAID 0 setup. But its sluggish performance in RAID 1 shows that a Thunderbolt-capable RAID can be crippled by the speed of its mechanical drives. If the My Book Thunderbolt Duo came packaged with two 7,200-rpm drives, we’d probably be telling a different story. <br /><br />Actually, we’d be telling G-Technology’s 8TB G-RAID story, because it does come packing two 4TB, 7,200-rpm Hitachi drives inside. (It’s available in 4TB and 6TB sizes too.) The RAID clocked in at read and write speeds of 248MB/s and 192MB/s in RAID 0, and 121MB/s and 116MB/s in RAID 1. The G-RAID's read speeds in RAID 0 are comparable to that of an SSD, and its overall performance illustrates that mechanical hard drives do have their place with the Thunderbolt I/O. The G-RAID’s only major setbacks are cosmetic: the chassis is huge and features a bright white LED light on the front. It’s also a bit louder compared to the My Book Thunderbolt Duo, but this is not a beauty contest, so if you can deal with its awkward size then you should consider it for the performance alone.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img src="/files/u307916/2012/07/reviews/g_raid_thunderbolt_hero1.jpg" width="620" height="318" /></p><p>Both RAIDs come preconfigured as RAID 0 and are formatted HFS+, so they work right out of the box. The G-RAID and the My Book also both allow you to daisy chain other Thunderbolt drives, which is ideal for professionals who need the space, or the extra backups. The My Book also comes with WD’s software, which offers S.M.A.R.T. drive monitoring and the ability to switch between a mirrored or a striped RAID mechanism, but it’s arguably easier to do these tasks with OS X’s built-in Disk Utility. Neither of the drives comes with a Thunderbolt cord--you’ll have to get your own from Apple for $49--but we can’t stress enough that this is not a manufacturer folly. Every Thunderbolt product we’ve tested so far is BYO cable.<br /><strong><br />The bottom line. </strong>Fans of WD’s reputable My Book line will appreciate that the My Book Thunderbolt Duo exists for their Thunderbolt-capable Mac. But anyone without such brand loyalty should consider G-Technology’s G-RAID to take advantage of Thunderbolt’s powerful capabilities.</p><p><img src="http://www.maclife.com/files/u32/hairline_622.gif" width="622" height="5" /></p> <p><strong>My Book Thunderbolt Duo<br /></strong></p> <p><strong>Western Digital</strong><strong><br /></strong><a href="http://www.wdc.com" target="_blank"><strong>wdc.com</strong></a></p> <p><strong>Price: </strong>$599.99 for 4TB; $699.99 for 6TB (tested)</p> <p><strong>Requirements: </strong>Thunderbolt port, Apple Thunderbolt cord ($49, <a href="http://www.apple.com" target="_blank">www.apple.com</a>)</p> <p><strong><img src="http://www.maclife.com/files/u307916/solidroundup.jpg" width="187" height="41" style="padding: 0px 0px 10px 20px; float: right;" class="graphic-right" /></strong><strong>Pros: </strong>Fast data transfers between Mac and RAID. Quiet. Easy to store enclosure.</p> <p><strong>Cons: </strong>Not as fast as a 7,200-rpm hard drive.</p> <p><img src="http://www.maclife.com/files/u32/hairline_622.gif" width="622" height="5" /></p> <p><strong>G-RAID with Thunderbolt</strong><strong><br /></strong></p><p><strong>G-Technology by Hitachi</strong><strong><br /><a href="http://www.g-technology.com" target="_blank">g-technology.com<br /></a></strong></p> <p><strong>Price: </strong>$699.99 for 4TB; $849.99 for 6TB; $999.99 for 8TB (tested)</p><p><strong>Requirements: </strong>Thunderbolt port, Apple Thunderbolt cord ($49, <a href="http://www.apple.com" target="_blank">www.apple.com</a>)</p> <p><strong><img src="http://www.maclife.com/files/u307916/greatroundup.jpg" width="187" height="41" class="graphic-right" /></strong><strong>Pros: </strong>Large capacity. Fast read and write speeds. Ability to daisy chain with other Thunderbolt drives.</p> <p><strong>Cons: </strong>Big, bulky enclosure. Gets a bit loud during use.<br /><img src="http://www.maclife.com/files/u32/hairline_622.gif" width="622" height="5" /></p>http://www.maclife.com/article/reviews/my_book_thunderbolt_duo_graid_thunderbolt_review#commentsReviewsdrivesexternal drivesG-RAIDG-TechnologyHardwareHitachiRAIDStoragethunderboltWestern DigitalMacMon, 21 May 2012 11:40:17 +0000Florence Ion14091 at http://www.maclife.comHow to Delete iMovie Videoshttp://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_delete_imovie_videos
<!--paging_filter--><p><strong>Not being very familiar with iMovie, I had it import all the movies on my Mac. I noticed my drive space might have suffered for it. How do I disassociate all those movies from iMovie to reclaim that lost drive space?<br /></strong><br />iMovie imports can take up a good bit of space if you copy the files on import, instead of moving them. Luckily, you can easily remove these disk-hogging files with just a few clicks in iMovie.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img src="/files/u307916/2011/12/ask/imovie.jpg" width="444" height="200" /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Clicking Delete Unused will leave currently in-use videos alone.<br /></strong></p><p>After opening the application, Command-click on all of the events in the Events Library you want to remove, and then press Command-Delete on your keyboard. A new dialog will pop up, with two buttons, one labeled Delete and one labeled Delete Unused. Clicking Delete Unused will delete any of the selected events that are not currently part of an iMovie project. However, if you wish to delete all video files in iMovie, select Delete to delete all selected event videos.</p><p><strong>GOT A TECH QUESTION OR A HELPFUL TIP TO SHARE?</strong></p><p>Email&nbsp;<a href="mailto:ask@maclife.com" target="_blank">ask@maclife.com</a>&nbsp;or write to Mac|Life,&nbsp;<br />4000 Shoreline Ct, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080</p>http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_delete_imovie_videos#commentsblank spacedrivesiMovieMacHow-TosFri, 28 Oct 2011 12:10:02 +0000Cory Bohon12695 at http://www.maclife.comThe Lifer: Farewell to Hard-Disk Driveshttp://www.maclife.com/article/feature/lifer_farewell_harddisk_drives
<!--paging_filter--><p><img src="/files/u129772/2010/06/rik_150.jpg" width="150" height="201" class="graphic-right" />The plain, unvarnished truth about the future of storage is that fundamental differences between hard-disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs) will lead to the HDD’s doom. Those differences, however, also explain SSD’s bad reputation for getting slower over time, among other things. Such kinks are being worked out, and 2011 will be the year SSDs go mainstream.<br /><br />To the SSD’s advantage, the HDD’s ancient spinning-disk tech makes the average latency (the time it takes to find the data) of a speedy Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 HDD a full 4.16 milliseconds. For a bits-on-chips Micron RealSSD C300, average write latency is a little over 0.08 milliseconds. Ouch. Also, a hard drive reads and writes data in a single stream, while an SSD deals simultaneously with multiple chip channels (four to ten, usually). The more channels, the higher the bandwidth. A serial HDD just can’t compete with a parallel SSD.<br /><br />There are two types of SSDs. One, called a single-level cell (SLC), holds one bit per cell; the other, called a multi-level cell (MLC), holds two. The cells are essentially identical—it’s the way they store bits that’s different. But MLCs are cheaper than SLCs, and they’re (usually) slower and (potentially) have shorter lifespans. That’s why SSD manufacturers use a technique called wear-leveling to evenly balance cell usage. Essentially, it ensures that an SSD’s MLC cells grow old together.<br /><br />The facts behind why older SSDs have slowed down relate to how bits are erased on HDDs and SSDs. When you delete a file, you don’t actually erase anything—you merely tell your Mac to forget about that file. When you need its space back on an HDD, you simply write over it. On an SSD, however, you have to erase it first, then write over it. But when you erase bits from an SSD, you have to do so one block at a time (usually 512KB), even though you write to one page at a time (there are commonly 128 4KB pages in a block).</p><p><a class="thickbox" href="/files/u129772/2010/08/die_full.jpg"><img src="/files/u129772/2010/08/die_380_0.jpg" width="380" height="224" /></a></p><p>Let’s say a block on your SSD contains data from multiple files. Some of those files are active, some are “deleted” but not erased. But now, when you want to write a new file to pages in that block, there are so many inactive—but full—pages that there’s no room for that file. So you need to erase those inactive pages.<br /><br />But remember that you must erase the entire block at the same time. So to protect the active files in that block, you write the block out to some free space on your SSD or to a buffer, then erase the block, then write the original good stuff back to the just-erased block. And you’ve just wasted a ton of time.<br /><br />What’s worse, the more you use your drive, the more it fills up, and the more time you waste keeping it clean. The older it gets, the slower it gets. The solution to this problem was once simply to wipe an aging, slowing SSD clean and start over—not convenient, but effective. But SSD designers have come up with better ideas, such as setting aside a good chunk of the SSD as extra space for write operations (called overprovisioning), then to erase inactive pages during garbage-collection idle time—and to have those overprovisioned blocks be available when others go south.<br /><br />Another was the introduction of TRIM technology, in which the operating system explicitly tells the SSD to erase the pages it no longer needs. Windows 7 supports TRIM; Mac OS X doesn’t—though it’s rumored for the future.<br /><br />More effective, however, are increasingly sophisticated, zippy drive controllers, such as the Indilinx Barefoot or the Marvell controller in the Micron RealSSD C300, that are smarter than TRIM. SandForce’s DuraClass Technology controllers, which power Other World Computing’s Mercury Extreme Pro SSDs, among others, add compression and other goodies to the mix.<br /><br />So SSDs will get better. Indilinx’s new JetStream controller is coming soon, and Intel’s popular X25-M will update late in the year. It may take a generation for SSDs and HDDs to reach price parity, but when they get even close, hard-disk drives are doomed.<br /><br />--<br /><br /><em>Since the late 1980s, Rik Myslewski has paid his rent by keeping an eye on Apple. He was editor-in-chief of </em>MacAddict<em> from 2001 until its transformation into </em>Mac|Life<em> in early 2007, and is now a member of the snarkily sophisticated team at London’s </em>The Register<em>, which is “biting the hand that feeds IT” daily at <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk" target="_blank">www.theregister.co.uk</a>.</em></p><p>&nbsp;</p>http://www.maclife.com/article/feature/lifer_farewell_harddisk_drives#commentsColumnsdriveshard-diskSolid-StateSSDthe liferFeaturesMon, 23 Aug 2010 16:24:00 +0000Rik Myslewski8005 at http://www.maclife.com